Iranian Nuclear Facilities Reportedly Are Thunderstruck By New Computer Virus

According to Gawker, Iranian nuclear facilities have been hit by a new computer worm. A computer worm that has excellent taste in music, apparently, as AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" has been heard blasting late at night on facility computers. Photo: Reuters

According to Gawker, Iranian nuclear facilities have been hit by a new computer worm. A computer worm that has excellent taste in music, apparently, as AC/DC's Thunderstruck has been heard blasting late at night on facility computers. The attacks seem to go on late at night, with the virus targeting the automation networks of two facilities, one in Natanz and another in Qom.

The virus is apparently a variation on the Nigerian email scam, with the virus geared towards computer systems and computer-guided automation. The system used, Metasploit, is an open-source piece of software that allows anyone to tailor and design a hacking protocol to identify and exploit systems. The framework also is geared toward covering a hacker's tracks, thus making traditional forensic tracking difficult by current standards.

Using music, in this case, AC/DC's Thunderstruck is being considered as a tactic to confuse and distract those in proximity to the effected computers as the Metaploit-developed system continues to mine data and extract security protocol. Iranian nuclear scientists reached out to Mikko Hypponen, a legend in the computer forensics and hacking field, for help. Hypponen has handled issues regarding Iran's Atomic Energy Organization in the past, helping them deal with Flame-infected systems. Flame was developed as a spyware system geared toward keeping an eye on Iranian nuclear development, and has since been weaponized by hackers and primarily utilized in the middle-east.

While the Metasploit virus isn't as severe as the Flame spyware/malware tool, hackers using AC/DC to cover their tracks is a new development.